Tom Coburn calls out White House hiring

Automatic budget cuts haven’t stopped the federal government from posting new hiring notices for historians, librarians, painters, “recreation aids” and a social media management service, according to a letter Sen. Tom Coburn sent to the White House budget office Tuesday.

“While the Air Force may need leadership for its museums and history programs, and the USDA may need to keep its literature in order, those needs should take a back seat to the dire threat to public health and safety that some have claimed will result from sequestration,” Coburn (R-Okla.) fumed in the letter to Acting Director of the Office of Management and Budget Jeffrey Zients.

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The letter is part of a new campaign of correspondence from the conservative fiscal hawk to administration officials, through which, he has sought to illustrate that there is plenty of wasteful spending that could be curtailed to prevent furloughs of federal workers. The automatic, across-the-board federal budget cuts, known as sequestration, don’t have to be as rough on the current federal workforce, he argues.

In a letter earlier this week, Coburn asked Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to put the kibosh on attendance at a pair of West Coast conferences that include wine and food tastings.

“While these conferences may be fun, interesting and even educational getaways for department employees, food inspecting rather than food tasting should be USDA’s priority at this time,” Coburn wrote in that letter.

In Tuesday’s letter, which was made public on the senator’s website Wednesday, Coburn focused on the number of new job postings on the federal employment website at a time when OMB has directed federal agencies to give greater scrutiny to hiring.

“Despite OMB’s guidance, on March 4, 2013, the first business day after sequestration, there were 606 new federal jobs posted on usajobs.com,” he wrote. “While some of these positions may be essential to the mission of the agency, others are not. In addition, these jobs posted after sequestration went into effect, there are many vacancies for federal jobs that are still available and closing after March 4. … According to OMB, the average annual salary for a government employee is around $76,000.”